I'm in the exact same position. I find myself refreshing my rankings KNOWING that they haven't even updated it yet. I could be building links and other things, rather I spend time refreshing and sometimes manually double checking SERP positions (obsessive... I know). Even when I'm on my phone at dinner or somewhere, I might check my rankings.

I definitely need to give myself a limit or something. It's something I told myself I will start doing but I haven't bothered.

I do this once a day because of my routine. I check my earnings and analytics when I wake up and then I do not worry about them until I wake up the next day. Just tell yourself that they will not magically change (positively) unless you start to focus on IM.

I don't know! I check my CPA earnings very damn often and trying to look only few times a day, but can't. Rankings? I only do that once a day since serplab check once a day so I just visit once, I see the stats and that's it. Earnings are my problem. And the more I earn, to more I watch

checking earnings at least once a day is crucial imho, a lot can happen in a week, especially if you're more on the blackhat side of the things, if something goes south, you can lose quite a bit of money in a week
i think checking earnings once or twice a day is fine, in every hour maybe that's too intense and obviously you can spare some time of you don't do that
i don't check rankings though, because i don't rely on Google for traffic

checking earnings at least once a day is crucial imho, a lot can happen in a week, especially if you're more on the blackhat side of the things, if something goes south, you can lose quite a bit of money in a week
i think checking earnings once or twice a day is fine, in every hour maybe that's too intense and obviously you can spare some time of you don't do that
i don't check rankings though, because i don't rely on Google for traffic

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I remember when I was first getting into affiliate marketing, along with Internet marketing in general, I used to check my Clickbank earnings every 30 minutes.

Of course, I do not do this any more since my business has grown since then, but it's always funny when I think about it.

Ahh.... the good ol rank check OCD. I honestly think all marketers go through this to some degree. Like I use to do it about 30 times a day.... now I do it once a day. But I still check my traffic like 3-5 times a day.

I think you have to naturally reach a point where you realize "these red and green arrows are controlling my brain like uppers and downers would".

Studies have proven that merely clicking a mouse triggers dopamine. I heard this on the radio yesterday on "John Bachelor". This scientist talked for 30 minutes just about computer interaction and brain dopamine levels. The guy said if you click your mouse multiple times, it triggers more dopamine which makes you more likely to keep clicking.

And I think with rank checking, that effect is multiplied X100. The first time I logged into Serpfox and saw "#1" I might as well have been on speed. I jumped up, ran around my house screaming and yelling at the top of my lungs, "FUCK YEH! I OWN GOOGLE!!! FUCK YOU BITCHES!"... then I picked up the phone and called like 10 people who didn't really give a shit lol.

HOWEVER... you can only trigger dopamine so much in such a way before your brain becomes desensitized (this was another thing the guy talked about). And I think that's what happens to a lot of marketers. They trigger that dopamine (good and bad) so many times their brains detach emotionally. Like you rank 10 keywords #1, but you also lose 10 keywords from #1, and you just learn to flow with the blows over time. You learn that "yes, Google is a computer alogrithm... yes, I can control it to a degree, but YES... YES it is vulnerable to the same level of randomness as the world... and life in general".

Once you fully reach that understanding, you will learn how to control it. It's just a matter of when.

For me it's watching my sales all the time. I started to disable my email notifications and only check them at specific times a day (3 times: morning, afternoon, evening) so I have time to "actually" work!

Ahh.... the good ol rank check OCD. I honestly think all marketers go through this to some degree. Like I use to do it about 30 times a day.... now I do it once a day. But I still check my traffic like 3-5 times a day.

I think you have to naturally reach a point where you realize "these red and green arrows are controlling my brain like uppers and downers would".

Studies have proven that merely clicking a mouse triggers dopamine. I heard this on the radio yesterday on "John Bachelor". This scientist talked for 30 minutes just about computer interaction and brain dopamine levels. The guy said if you click your mouse multiple times, it triggers more dopamine which makes you more likely to keep clicking.

And I think with rank checking, that effect is multiplied X100. The first time I logged into Serpfox and saw "#1" I might as well have been on speed. I jumped up, ran around my house screaming and yelling at the top of my lungs, "FUCK YEH! I OWN GOOGLE!!! FUCK YOU BITCHES!"... then I picked up the phone and called like 10 people who didn't really give a shit lol.

HOWEVER... you can only trigger dopamine so much in such a way before your brain becomes desensitized (this was another thing the guy talked about). And I think that's what happens to a lot of marketers. They trigger that dopamine (good and bad) so many times their brains detach emotionally. Like you rank 10 keywords #1, but you also lose 10 keywords from #1, and you just learn to flow with the blows over time. You learn that "yes, Google is a computer alogrithm... yes, I can control it to a degree, but YES... YES it is vulnerable to the same level of randomness as the world... and life in general".

Once you fully reach that understanding, you will learn how to control it. It's just a matter of when.

It's understandable in the beginning of every project, it's like a baby and you want to keep tabs on it.

But once you're earning steady/growing income - you can finally enjoy your time outside of marketing, the reason you wanted to earn a living to begin with. You still pop in and update things but you no longer have to obsess. That's the joy of self-made stable income.

Make a little bot, that'll report back some basic stats to you every 'x' amount of minutes. I used to have a lil tool that would do that, and then ding anytime I got a sale. It's a simple ass little program that you can minimize or hide and only look at for a second and go back to work. That only check it once a week is nuts, I wouldn't even say once a day is ok. You never know when someone is going to report a link, or something else. I guess it depends on what you're doing, but I wouldn't want to go even a few hours without at least a little peak to make sure everything is still on track and firing smoothly.

Make a little bot, that'll report back some basic stats to you every 'x' amount of minutes. I used to have a lil tool that would do that, and then ding anytime I got a sale. It's a simple ass little program that you can minimize or hide and only look at for a second and go back to work. That only check it once a week is nuts, I wouldn't even say once a day is ok. You never know when someone is going to report a link, or something else. I guess it depends on what you're doing, but I wouldn't want to go even a few hours without at least a little peak to make sure everything is still on track and firing smoothly.

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Hey, that's not a bad idea! I might see if I can create one of these myself.

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